Contents

Legends

Legends hold that the Grey King of the Iron Islands wed a mermaid and became king of the western isles and all the sea beyond.[1] The ironmen believe that in the Drowned God's watery halls there are mermaids to attend to every want. The priests of the Drowned God claim the ironmen are closer kin to fish and merlings than other humans.[2]

Patchface mentions merfolk in some of his cryptic jingles that may have prophetic meaning. According to him the merwives wear nennymoans in their hair and weave gowns of silver seaweed. The mermaids of the Shivering Sea are said to have pale skin and black-scaled tails, and to be far more dangerous than mermaids of southern seas.[11]

History

The sigil of House Manderly of White Harbor is a white merman with dark green hair, beard and tail, carrying a black trident, over a blue-green field.[12] The Castle Stair, a stepped street in their city, is lighted with marble mermaids cradling bowls of burning whale oil.[13] The Manderlys receive visitors in the Merman's Court within the New Castle.[6] The sigil of a White Harbor knight depicts three silver mermaids on a violet field.[14]

Roro Uhoris claimed that he could tell one port from another just by the way they smelled. Cities were like women, he insisted, as each one had its own unique scent. White Harbor was sharp, salty, and a little fishy like a mermaid.[15]

What happened to Patchface during the two days after the Windproud had broken up is unknown, but the fisherfolk like to say that "a mermaid had taught him to breathe water in return for his seed."[16]